12 Easy Steps for Growing Your Landscaping Business

Growing a landscape business

There is always a mix of excitement and fear when you decide to open your own business … especially a lawn care or landscaping company. You have plenty of competition.

How can you grow your lawn maintenance company despite the competition?

12 Steps for Growing Your Landscaping Company

It’s thrilling to start your own organic lawn care company. Yet, you’ll find that you have some overwhelming challenges before you gas up your zero-turn mower.
So, what is the best way for you to grow your new landscaping business (lawn care business owners, this information is for you too)? Here are 12 steps to get you started:

1. Start with your dream: Marty Grunder shares four thoughts from a GROW conference he led back in 2018. Start with your idea, plan your dream into practical steps, execute your vision, and then, lead others within your dream.

Many times, business growth blogs focus on the numbers, KPIs, and other data. And that’s not wrong. But we business owners forget where the idea to start our companies came from—our dreams and aspirations.

If you want to grow your company, go back and remember when you had that “Aha” moment to start your landscaping or lawn care business. What lead you to take that dream and move forward with it?

2. Get a SCORE mentor: I don’t know about you, but when I started the Landscape Writer, I knew what I wanted to do, whom I was going to serve, and how I was going to market my business blogging services.

I knew other bloggers who had SCORE mentors, but I didn’t believe I needed one right away. Well, I was wrong. I got a SCORE mentor within 18 months of the Landscape Writer opening, and Tim, my mentor, helped me get my business off the ground.

How? By coaching me to write a business plan, a marketing plan, and other essential ways to start a company. So, I now encourage others to get a SCORE mentor.

I know that there are a lot of great coaches and consultants in the green industry. But if you’re new to business, you can get your toes wet by seeing a SCORE mentor. All of the mentors are volunteers, and they don’t charge a dime for their time or wisdom.

A SCORE mentor will help you decide if you’re wired for business ownership as well as the first steps to take to birth your baby (your business baby, that is).

3. If you have existing customers, keep them coming back to you:

One of the best ways to stay in business is repeat business.

So, you need to figure out the best methods for keeping your current clients happy—not only for them to stick with you, but to refer you to more business.

4. Don’t wait to build marketing momentum: Start letting people know about your lawn care business by creating excitement through social media. See where your ideal customers hang out. Is it Twitter? LinkedIn? Facebook?

Also, don’t forget that a blog is a social media tool as well. Start getting some posts up focusing on common lawn care and landscaping problems people in your area deal with every summer. Examples include grubs, drought, heat stress, water usage, fungi, etc.

Read more: Why You Must Blog about Your Lawn Care and Landscaping Services.

5. Get those word of mouth referrals: If you’ve mowed some lawns or created flowerbeds that provide continuous color, ask your customers to refer you. You can add incentives, such as one free mow or 10% off your core aeration services.

6. Rebrand, maybe? If you’ve used the same logo or graphic for a long time—say a decade or more—it may be time to rebrand. But remember when you rebrand that means that your trucks and signs must reflect your rebrand.

7. Keep your website active: An active site helps people find you when they do a Google search. It also shows that you have the pulse on the lawn care and landscaping needs of your community.

8. Get social: Copy and paste specific points and tips from your blog and repurpose them on your social media channels. You can also get the conversation going with surveys, BBQ recipes, and latest news, such as what works to stop Spotted Lantern Fly.

9. Start organic, then pay for ads: When you’re new to the ballgame of business blogs and social media, start small. Don’t buy ad space until you know what you’re customers are looking for from a lawn maintenance company.

However, use as many “free” social media tools as you can. Examples include
HubSpot’s CRM tool to keep track of your leads

Buffer so you can upload and schedule social media content

Google My Business to get your company on the virtual map and help people find you faster

10. Open house: Host an open house one or two more times a year. Get on social media to encourage people in your area to come meet their local lawn service. Also, don’t forget to send postcards and put up flyers in local communities to build excitement.

Don’t forget to supply refreshments. Also, write down what you want to tell your visitors about your lawn and landscaping business. For example, if you hold a Fall Open House, you can talk about your core aeration and overseeding services as well as fall yard clean up.

11. Diversify your business: If you only provide lawn care, you may want to include some landscaping services. Conversely, if you live in an area where you get snow every winter, consider bidding on snow removal jobs.

12. Keep the off-season busy: If you provide late fall lawn fertilizer or you have an arborist on staff, consider off-season services such as shrub and tree trimming, fall yard cleanup, and other services.

Learn more: Don’t make these 7 mistakes as you grow your lawn and landscaping maintenance company.

How the Landscape Writer Can Help Your Landscaping and Lawn Care Company Grow

When you hire the Landscape Writer to help you grow your landscape maintenance or lawn care company, you’re investing in content marketing that will bring more people to your website. At the Landscape Writer, I deliver educational content that attracts local homeowners and commercial clients that need your services.

If you’re ready to move to the next level with your website’s content marketing, call or text me today at 717-381-6719 or fill out my free consultation form. All blogs are “custom-made.”

Sources:
Caldwell, Dodd, “22 Ways to Grow Your Landscaping Business.”
LawnandLandscape.com, “4 Steps Pros Take to Grow a Landscaping Business.”

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